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JUST THREE DAYS BEFORE US-SPONSORED TALKS ARE TO BEGIN ISRAEL
APPROVES NEARLY 1200 MORE SETTLEMENT HOMES
JERUSALEM (AP)  By KARIN LAUB and MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH -
August 11, 2013 12:14 PM EST Israel approved building nearly
1,200 more settlement homes Sunday and prepared the release of
more than two dozen long-held Palestinian prisoners  highlighting
an apparent settlements-for-prisoners trade-off that got both
sides back to peace talks after a five-year freeze.

Yet concerns were mounting, especially among Palestinians,
that the price is too steep. Sunday's announcement was Israel's
third in a week on promoting Jewish settlements on war-won lands
the Palestinians want for a state. It fueled Palestinian fears
of a new Israeli construction spurt under the cover of U.S.-sponsored
negotiations.

In Israel, the most vocal protests came from relatives of
those killed in attacks carried out by Palestinians slated for
release.

Bereaved relatives held up large photos of their loved ones
during a Supreme Court hearing on an appeal against the upcoming
release. "Why are we releasing butchers now? What for?"
asked Gila Molcho, whose brother, lawyer Ian Feinberg, was stabbed
to death by Palestinians who broke into a European aid office
in Gaza City in 1993.

Israelis and Palestinians arrangements and deciding the fate
of Palestinian refugees.

The Palestinians want a state to include the West Bank, Gaza
and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast
war. However, they are willing to swap some West Bank land for
Israeli territory to allow Israel to annex some of the largest
Jewish settlements. In all, Israel has built dozens of settlements
since 1967 that are now home to some 560,000 Israelis.

The diplomatic paralysis of the last five years was largely
due to disputes over the settlements, deemed illegal by most
of the international community.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas long insisted he will
only resume talks if Israel freezes construction. Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a freeze. Abbas, under pressure
from Kerry, eventually dropped it as a condition for talks.

In exchange, Kerry won Israeli agreement that it will release
104 Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences, many for involvement
in killing Israelis. Continued: http://dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Dec-25/199795-

israel-approves-1200-jerusalem-settler-homes-activists.ashx

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IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER PROMISES IN A NEWLY RELEASED AUDIOTAPE
THE DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL AND PALESTINIANS' RETURN TO THAT LAND

By Reza Kahlili - August 11, 2013 - WND -

Irans supreme leader promises in a newly released audiotape
the destruction of Israel and Palestinians return to that
land. Fars News Agency, an outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards,
last week posted an audiotape of excerpts of Ayatollah Ali Khameneis
speeches to Palestinian officials and others with a title Palestine
will surely become free.

In the audiotape, which is partly in Arabic, Khamenei gives
blessings to those who fight against Israel and says, Peace
be upon the children of our nation, peace be upon the brave jihadists
in Palestinian and Lebanese resistance. Today the Islamic world
and the whole world are witnesses to great revelations that show
change in international affairs.

The ayatollah promises a restructuring of the Middle East:
Palestine will be free, have no doubt in this. Palestinians
will return there and there will be a Palestinian government
and that is based on the truth revealed by God. A new
Middle East will be an Islamic Middle East.

Khamenei attacks Israel for defending itself: They
attacked Lebanon  a mistake. They attacked Gaza 
a mistake. They attacked those (Turkish) ships  a mistake.
These mistakes, one after another, show that the murderous Zionist
regime of Israel is reaching the final fall and destruction of
its own non-existence.

In promising the annihilation of Israel, the supreme leader
also says, There is no doubt that victory awaits the Palestinian
people in the future, and the myth of Zionist power over this
region will completely vanish, Allah willing.

Become a part of the investigative reporting team uncovering
the truths about Iran, and get author Reza Kahlilis A
Time to Betray about his life as a double agent inside
Irans Revolutionary Guards. Continued: http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/destruction-of-israel-guaranteed-ayatollah-says/#SWRZ2dffYIxwG0fd.99

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AREA NEAR AL-AQSA MOSQUE COLLAPSES
An area collapsed near the western wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque
late Tuesday. Arabs blamed Israel.
By Elad Benari First Publish: 8/22/2013, 4:15 AM - Al Aqsa Mosque,
Jerusalem
An area collapsed near the western wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque
in Jerusalem late Tuesday, reported the Turkish Anadolu news
agency. An eyewitness told the agency that the collapse occurred
near the Bab as Silsila, on the western part of the mosque. It
is the second collapse near the western wall within five years,
Cum'a Usayle, an eyewitness, told Anadolu. "The collapse
has caused a deep hole there. It is dangerous for the Al-Aqsa
Mosque. It poses danger especially for children and women,"
he said.

The report claimed that no security precautions around the
area have been taken by Israeli officials so far, nor has there
been a statement about the incident. The Al-Aqsa Foundation and
Cultural Heritage Organization accused Israel, as it usually
does, of paving the way for demolishing the Al-Aqsa Mosque by
building new settlements and digging dozens of tunnels.
Arabs continuously accuse Israel of "Judaizing" the
Temple Mount, sometimes resorting to ridiculous propaganda such
as accusing Israel of using chemicals to erode the foundations
of the mosque in order to cause it to collapse. At the same time
the Waqf, which was left in charge of the Temple Mount after
Israel liberated it during the 1967 Six Day War, consistently
destroys Jewish antiquities on the compound in a direct violation
of a ruling by the Supreme Court.

The Waqf has removed every sign of ancient Jewish presence
at the site. At the entrance to the Temple Mount, a Waqf sign
says, The Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard and everything in it
is Islamic property.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas several months
ago accused Israel of trying to destroy the Al-Aqsa
Mosque by allowing Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.

Speaking to a Saudi-based newspaper, Abbas said that "the
Al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger," claiming that Israel prevents
PA Arabs from praying at the mosque, while allowing extremist
Jews" to worship there. This, he claimed, is proof that
Israel has a "malicious" and dangerous plan to destroy
the mosque and rebuild the false Holy Temple in its
place, as he put it. Most recently, Jordanian King Abdullah II
added fuel to the ongoing debate over Jerusalem and the Temple
Mount, when he told visiting Muslim and Christian dignitaries
from Jerusalem that he will continue his efforts to safeguard
Islamic and Christian sites in the holy city of Jerusalem from
what so-called "Judaization."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/171163#.UhZpfX_qUSk

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OP-ED: IMMINENT ISRAEL'S CAPITULATION TO THE VATICAN
Published: Thursday, June 13, 2013 6:20 AM
Agreements with the Vatican are capitulation to their plans for
the Old City and the Temple Mount - or should we say the "Holy
Basin".

Giulio Meotti
The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly
column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A
New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's
terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared
in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and
Commentary. He is at work on a book about the Vatican and Israel.
A long-awaited agreement between the Vatican and Israel appears
to be near finality.

The two main points revolve around the Church's requests
to build two centers in Israel: a church in a section of the
Caesaria National Park where a site dedicated to Paul once stood,
and the use of a plot on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

The structure on Mt. Zion, the highest point of Jerusalem,
is known as the Cenacle, where the Last Supper is believed to
have taken place, and according to the deal which will be signed
in the coming months, it will become open to Catholic worship
once again.

The Vatican asks Israel to allow the Church to build a passageway
through the Diaspora Yeshiva, which takes care of the area known
as David's Tomb, and to enable thousands of Christian worshipers
to access the Last Supper Room more easily .

The area has strategic value, since it is a few hundred yards
from the Temple Mount, so the Catholic Church will turn it into
the international center for Catholics all around the world.

As the New Sanhedrin stated in 2009, those in the Vatican
who initiated the concept of the Holy Basin, which
is pivotal in this agreement, intended to remove exclusive Jewish
sovereignty from the Temple Mount and the Old City and - in effect
- aimed at "the total removal of Jewish sovereignty".

Father Athanasius Macora, secretary of a Franciscan commission
monitoring holy sites, declared that "Franciscan control
of the Last Supper room would open the site to regular Christian
prayer services, Masses and other ceremonies". Now the Franciscans
are permitted to have a mass only twice a year: on the day of
Pentecost and on the Holy Thursday. Christian pilgrim groups
have there a short silent prayer when visiting.

Recently Father Peter Stravinskas told Vatican Radio: "It
is unfortunate that this site of the Lord's last supper is not
accessible to Christians for worship. It is controlled by the
Israeli civil authorities. In fact when Pope John Paul went to
Jerusalem there had to be a special permission for him to be
able to celebrate mass in the Cenacle. There is some talk now,
of course, that perhaps there's a negotiation going on in order
to return the Cenacle to the care of the Church".

ISRAEL PREPARES FOR SYRIA STRIKE
Beneath the manicured sunken flower garden of Tel Avivs
Habima Square lies Israels first municipal nuclear and
chemical weapons shelter. While aboveground, Israels national
theater and the newly renovated Philharmonic Hall border the
square, down in the bunker, the walls are flanked by stacks of
emergency water containers. Close to the ceiling, theres
just enough room for an air-filter system designed to repel the
toxic gas from chemical weapons.

Author: Inna Lazareva - Posted on: August 30 2013

Almost three years after the start of the Arab Spring, the
clouds of war are gathering around Israel. As the United States
contemplates a strike on Syria, senior officials from Damascus
and Tehran have threatened that Israel will bear the brunt of
their wrath should the attack go ahead. But while the situation
in Syria is the most imminent concern, Israel is also seeing
other dangerously volatile fronts opening up.

In the south, global jihad-affiliated militants in the lawless
Sinai region of Egypt have launched several rocket attacks targeting
Israeli citizens, most recently in Red Sea resort town of Eilat.
Rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have also
increased in recent weeks. From Lebanon, four rockets were fired
by al-Qaeda-inspired cells into northern Israel only last week.
Violence has escalated in the West Bank since the beginning of
2013, and the recent killing of three Palestinians by Israeli
soldiers has provoked further riots and cast a shadow over the
peace talks.

Israel is preparing for war on all fronts, against old, new
and sometimes barely known foes, facing missiles which for the
first time can target with precision Israels major cities
all over the country. The scenes of panic characterized by long
queues outside gas mask distribution centers this week show that
Israelis understand that they can no longer be secure in the
knowledge that the IDF, the Middle Easts strongest army,
would be able to keep the violence hundreds of kilometers away.
Many also remember the Iraqi Scud missiles that rained down on
Tel Aviv during the first Gulf War in 1991, followed by the three-weeklong
barrage of rockets from Hezbollah in 2006, and most recently
the unprecedented missile attack on Tel Aviv by Hamas in November
2012. Yet all these might very well appear to be a mere dress
rehearsal to what is lying in store.

They used to call him Shasha the Crazy (Shasha Meshuga
in Hebrew) in the media, says Sara Paperin of Western Galilee
Hospital, situated just 6 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border.
She is talking about the hospitals former director-general,
who was convinced of the need to build an underground hospital
even back in the early 1990s. They crucified him in the
media, because it seemed to them like he wanted to take government
money and just throw it underground. But in 2006, when
more than 800 missiles landed within a 1-mile perimeter of the
hospital  and one directly in its ophthalmology department
 the doctor was vindicated. Today, the hospital has more
protective beds  below and above ground  than in
our entire hospital capacity. This is being replicated
across the country where entire hospitals, complete with sophisticated
surgery equipment, are now being built underground in anticipation
of rockets from Lebanon or Syria, or even farther afield. Continued:

ISRAEL MINISTER: WE SHOULD REBUILD JERUSALEM TEMPLE
Sunday, July 07, 2013 - Israel Today Staff Jerusalem 133 COMMENTS
An Israeli cabinet minister last week publicly stated that perhaps
the time has come to rebuild the biblical Temple on Jerusalem's
Temple Mount. Most Israelis has no aspirations of rebuilding
the Temple. Even among those who would like to see the Temple
restored, most do not believe Israel can undertake something
so controversial absent a direct act of God.

But that didn't stop Housing and Construction Minister Uri
Ariel (Jewish Home) from stating that "we need to build
a real Temple on the Temple Mount."

Ariel was speaking at a press event in the Samarian community
of Shilo, where archaeologists have uncovered remains of the
biblical Tabernacle that was located there for hundreds of years
before King David's conquest of Jerusalem.

An American Jew stated before the 2012 Presidential Election:
The answer is so simple. They are US Jews. Their parents
and grand parents like them before voted for Roosevelt even though
he closed the doors of escape to Jews who later went up in smoke
as a result. US Jews in their country club they call Jewish centers
are all in name only. They make me sick! This ex- Democrat will
vote to replace anti- Semite Obama. By the way I left my over
3 decades party when I discovered that it was infected with the
anti- Semitic virus. The enormous scream of NO! for
the Jewish capital in Jerusalem was truly horribly a proof of
what I discovered.

I stated: NO! NO! NO! The people who closed the doors of
escape to OLD-SICK-YOUNG POLISH Jews who later went up in smoke
as a result, were ZIONISTS!

In a surprising move, Irans new President Hassan Rouhani
on Wednesday joined those who sent well wishes to the Jewish
people on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah.

As the sun is about to set here in Tehran I wish all
Jews, especially Iranian Jews, a blessed Rosh Hashanah,
he tweeted, according to Al-Monitor.

The greeting by Rouhani, who has been hailed by the West
as a moderate, is a sharp contrast to his predecessor,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denied the Holocaust and openly called
to wipe Israel, the Jewish state, off the map.

Not even under the monarchy do we remember such a message,
Haleh Esfandiari, an Iranian-born scholar who heads the Middle
East program at the Woodrow Willson International Center, told
Al-Monitor of Rouhanis message.

Rouhanis well wishes to the Jewish people come as the
Iranian mission at the United Nations confirmed to Al-Monitor
that he will travel to New York later this month to address the
United Nations General Assembly and participate in a disarmament
meeting.

Rouhani is scheduled to address the General Assembly on the
afternoon of September 24th, the same day that U.S. President
Obama will address the body in the morning.

Ahmadinejad traditionally used his speeches at the UN to
launch into a tirade against Israel. Continued:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/171645

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NETANYAHU'S GREETING FOR ROSH HASHANA 5774

IN ENGLISH http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay42HCyifh0&feature=youtu.be

September 4, 2013 "I want to wish Jewish communities
around the world a very happy Rosh Hashanah. I hope the New Year
will bring the Jewish people everywhere security, prosperity
and peace. The New Year is of course a time for taking stock,
its a time for reflection, and as we look back over the
last year, there have been many achievements of which we can
be proud. Just in the last week we have witnessed some remarkable
achievements. Weve successfully relaunched the Amos 4 communication
satellite. You should know that Israel is among a very small
and elite group of countries capable of launching such satellites.
This is yet another testament to Israels technological
prowess. Today, Israeli technology and innovation are sought
after commodities around the globe, and as a result and despite
the worlds economic downturn and malaise, Israel leads
the developed countries in sustained growth. Israel stands out
economically and in so many other ways. Our young people continue
to make us proud. Israeli high school students have brought home
numerous prizes from global competitions, including gold, silver
and bronze medals from the Science and Computer Olympics. These
are important, they are intellectual sports events and I think
they are very, very indicative. In international test scores,
Israeli youngsters lead the Western world in math and they are
in the top tier in science.

During a period in which the rest of our region is experiencing
unprecedented turmoil, violence, extremism, we in Israel held
elections and we formed a new government. I am proud to serve
as Prime Minister. We remain an oasis of democracy, an oasis
of stability, of tolerance and liberty where the rights of all
are protected, where all are equal under the law. Of course we
have many challenges too. We have to make sure that our economy
continues to grow, that all Israelis enjoy the benefits of that
economic growth and we also have external challenges.

We seek to advance peace with the Palestinians while maintaining
our security and ensuring that the peace will be a real and enduring
peace. Not a ceremony, not an agreement that we celebrate for
two minutes and then collapse. We want a real, genuine and enduring
peace and this must be anchored in recognition of Israel as a
Jewish state and in our security. This is what ultimately is
needed. Now of course as we look around we see the situation
in Syria, its of great concern, great tragedy, and we follow
the developments there very closely, and while were not
involved in the internal conflict in Syria, we will defend ourselves
and if it is necessary, we will act with resolve to protect our
people. No one should doubt our resolve. And of paramount importance,
we also see Iran continue to pursue its nuclear weapons program,
and this poses a great threat to Israel, to the region, to the
peace of the world. Irans nuclear program must be stopped.
We simply cannot allow the worlds most dangerous regime
to obtain the worlds most dangerous weapon. We already
have enough indication of what this could do. Cont'd: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=61840

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OBAMA: SYRIA WASN'T PUT BEFORE CONGRESS TO PLAY GAMES

[Ednote: so far Obama doesn't have the majority vote.]
President Obama commented Friday on whether he would strike Syria
if Congress voted against the use of force, saying 'I am not
going to engage in parlor games now.'

By JPOST.COM STAFF 09/06/2013 12:24
Initiative calls for Assad's resignation, interim gov't in Syria.
Assad Photo: reuters - European countries will present a "last
resort" initiative to avoid a US-led strike against Syria
and resolve the Syrian crisis peacefully at the sidelines of
the G20 Conference in St. Petersburg, Lebanese newspaper Al Joumhouria
reported on Friday.

According to the report, European diplomats are working to
convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept the initiative,
that sets three conditions to preventing the possible US strike:
Syrian President Bashar Assad's resignation within three months,
installing a transitional government, and finally, bringing both
the Syrian government and the opposition to the Geneva peace
conference.

According to the unnamed source, Assad has asked that specific
mechanisms are developed in order to facilitate the quick handover
of power through elections, as well as to be given assurances
he will not be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court,
and that he, his family and those close to him are assured a
safe exit to another country.

The US administration, the source said, rejected the offer,
insisting Assad stepped down without providing him guarantees,
and saying it cannot make such a decision instead of the Syrian
opposition.